20th Annual Baltic Conference on Defence to Focus on Europe’s Defence Challenges

The 20th Edition of the Annual Baltic Conference on Defence (ABCD) will bring senior political, military and security experts to Tallinn on 22–23 September to examine what Europe must do to deter, defend and prevail.

“Today, Europe is spending more on defence than at any point since the Cold War, yet the gap between defence needs and actual combat power has never been more consequential,” said Nele Loorents, conference director and Research Fellow at the International Centre for Defence and Security. “We will draw on battlefield lessons from Ukraine, take account of both the fractures in and strengths of the transatlantic alliance, and reflect on the hard questions surrounding escalation, endurance, and success.”

Confirmed speakers include Hanno Pevkur, Minister of Defence of Estonia; Theo Francken, Minister of Defence and Foreign Trade of Belgium; Gert-Jan Kooij, Commander of Land Component Command of the Royal Netherlands Army; Ian Brzezinski, Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council; Michaela Dodge, Research Scholar at the National Institute for Public Policy; Sarah Fainberg, Head of the Great Powers Research Programme Elrom Center for Air and Space Studies; and Héloïse Fayet, Senior Research Fellow at the French Institute of International Relations, among many others.

The full list of confirmed speakers is available at: https://abcd.icds.ee/conference-2026/speakers/. The list is constantly updated.

The conference will begin on 22 September with a keynote panel focusing on the rebuilding of NATO, including the respective roles of the United States and other Allies under new arrangements and the wider implications of the “Europeanisation” of the Alliance.

Discussions will also address escalation management; the long-term threat posed by Russia and what NATO must do to counter it; societal resilience and how to build capacity for both war and peacetime; and the relationship between innovation, military mass, and combat effectiveness.

The conference will explore how technologies such as artificial intelligence and autonomous systems, as well as approaches that enable “innovation at the speed of war”, can be developed alongside more traditional military capabilities to ensure battlefield effectiveness. Other sessions will examine nuclear policy, the Indo-Pacific, and lessons from drone warfare in the Middle East and Ukraine.

The draft agenda: https://abcd.icds.ee/conference-2026/agenda/.

The 20th ABCD will take place on 22–23 September 2026 in Tallinn Creative Hub, within the framework of Estonian Defence Week 2026. It is organised by the International Centre for Defence and Security and the Estonian Ministry of Defence. The first ABCD took place in 2006 and for two decades the conference has been a prominent regional forum bringing together policymakers, military leaders, and academics to discuss key issues in transatlantic, European, and regional defence.

Taking place in Tallinn from 21–25 September 2026, Estonian Defence Week 2026 is a week-long programme expected to convene more than 4,000 participants from across Europe and allied nations.

EDW2026 will also feature Defence Industry Symposium, NATO Open Innovation Conference & Expo (NOICE), Defence Innovation Day, Tallinn Defence Expo, City Resilience Hack and several specialised industry events.

Estonian Defence Week is organised by the Estonian Defence and Aerospace Industry Association in cooperation with the Estonian Ministry of Defence. The event aims to strengthen cooperation between governments, armed forces, the defence industry and innovators while accelerating the transition from emerging technologies to operational capabilities.